Team Captain

This is quite interesting the point in time of this article. It is after Nick Cowdery, QC retired as he retired in March that year but it is before Asquith High Educated Lloyd Babb became the DPP. In the podcast, Lyn Dawson's sister Pat Jenkins said she wrote to every new DPP when they came in. I wonder if she wrote to them once Nicholas Cowdery retired. Episode 14 of the podcast when Pat finds out that Lloyd would have known at least 2 of the brothers and possibly a third she makes a remark about it being like when Nicholas Cowdery was in the DPP.

Team Captain

I really have no idea. I do hope one does go ahead. I think it is important to keep it in the public eye including through online forums.

Looking at the 2003 inquest versus now.

There is still no body and the house has been checked. At least 2 of the witnesses at the inquest Phil Day (from the Baths taking Helena Simms and kids home to Helena's house) and Barbara Kilpatrick are now deceased.

At any trial, evidence has to be substantiated, so creativity like Lyn used her credit card on these dates after she was believed to have been killed could not be used. The suggestion that Damian Loone was having an affair with Lyn was a big joke. I don't believe I have ever heard that occur in a trial.

There would need to be a good look at the Prosecutions facts that could be proven too.

After the 2001 inquest, it took several months to determine that charges wouldn't be laid. While in 2018, Nicholas Cowdery isn't a popular person among Lyn Dawson supporters, it took a true crime podcast to get further information, that hopefully is enough to get a trial ... 36 years too late.

Team Captain

I really have no idea. I do hope one does go ahead. I think it is important to keep it in the public eye including through online forums.

Looking at the 2003 inquest versus now.

There is still no body and the house has been checked. At least 2 of the witnesses at the inquest Phil Day (from the Baths taking Helena Simms and kids home to Helena's house) and Barbara Kilpatrick are now deceased.

At any trial, evidence has to be substantiated, so creativity like Lyn used her credit card on these dates after she was believed to have been killed could not be used. The suggestion that Damian Loone was having an affair with Lyn was a big joke. I don't believe I have ever heard that occur in a trial.

There would need to be a good look at the Prosecutions facts that could be proven too.

After the 2001 inquest, it took several months to determine that charges wouldn't be laid. While in 2018, Nicholas Cowdery isn't a popular person among Lyn Dawson supporters, it took a true crime podcast to get further information, that hopefully is enough to get a trial ... 36 years too late.

Moderator

While in 2018, Nicholas Cowdery isn't a popular person among Lyn Dawson supporters, it took a true crime podcast to get further information, that hopefully is enough to get a trial ... 36 years too late.

There are some similarities to the Keli Lane case, she was convicted in 2010 under Nicholas Cowdery. No body. While Keli's baby as an infant couldn't just walk out and make a new life somewhere else, imo as unlikely as Lyn Dawson could have just walked out. And there's no suggestion up until the infant disappeared, that Keli had any propensity for violence or predatory behaviour. Unlike Chris Dawson, who also had a lot to gain and did, financially. Keli Lane was a liar and that went a long way towards her conviction, but so was Chris Dawson.

Team Captain

There are some similarities to the Keli Lane case, she was convicted in 2010 under Nicholas Cowdery. No body. While Keli's baby as an infant couldn't just walk out and make a new life somewhere else, imo as unlikely as Lyn Dawson could have just walked out. And there's no suggestion up until the infant disappeared, that Keli had any propensity for violence or predatory behaviour. Unlike Chris Dawson, who also had a lot to gain and did, financially. Keli Lane was a liar and that went a long way towards her conviction, but so was Chris Dawson.

At some stage I should document all the lies I believe Chris Dawson made.

At times I have tried to be truly objective looking at the possibility he was innocent and misjudged. The confirmation bias we have thinking that often a male relative (especially a husband) are the first suspect in a disappearance/murder and then I think:
Why did he not mention Joanne in his interview in 1982?
Why did he say she joined a cult?
The notes in Helena Simms diary about Lyn being a pretend mum to the girls...

Moderator

At some stage I should document all the lies I believe Chris Dawson made.

At times I have tried to be truly objective looking at the possibility he was innocent and misjudged. The confirmation bias we have thinking that often a male relative (especially a husband) are the first suspect in a disappearance/murder and then I think:
Why did he not mention Joanne in his interview in 1982?
Why did he say she joined a cult?
The notes in Helena Simms diary about Lyn being a pretend mum to the girls...

All the lies he told at the school, surely to get alone time with Joanne. And at home, where he and Joanne were carrying on their affair under Lyn's nose, the suggestion he was doping Lyn so she wouldn't wake up. He has the mo of a criminal.

Moderator

Gary Sullivan, armed robber and Paul Hayward heroin smuggling - recruited by his brother in law Neddy Smith. Perhaps Nicholas Cowdery should have looked at Chris Dawson a little bit harder and with the same lens as he looked at Keli Lane.

All Australian

Gary Sullivan, armed robber and Paul Hayward heroin smuggling - recruited by his brother in law Neddy Smith. Perhaps Nicholas Cowdery should have looked at Chris Dawson a little bit harder and with the same lens as he looked at Keli Lane.

Cowdery does my head in, especially after seeing him in the Keli lane case the other night too. How he can argue that there is enough evidence to convict Keli lane but not enough to convict Chris Dawson is astounding

Team Captain

Cowdery does my head in, especially after seeing him in the Keli lane case the other night too. How he can argue that there is enough evidence to convict Keli lane but not enough to convict Chris Dawson is astounding

Team Captain

Lloyd Babbs declared his conflict of interest in 2011 to the then-attorney-general and the DPP but never recorded it on the official register. The NSW Police Force never knew until 2018.

From the article called "DPP Declared Dawson Case Conflict of Interest in 2011."
“The director recused himself to then-attorney-general, Greg Smith, on October 14, 2011,” Mr Speakman said. “On further referral from the NSW Police Force, received on April 12, 2018, the director noted the conflict in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution’s Conflict of Interest Register on April 16, 2018.”

"Mr Speakman has also confirmed for the first time that police had been kept in the dark about the conflict."

Moderator

The Australian’s national chief correspondent Hedley Thomas and producer Slade Gibson have won the nation’s most prestigious award in journalism, the Gold Walkley, for their record breaking true crime podcast The Teacher's Pet.

The pair also won a Walkley Award for investigative journalism for The Teacher’s Pet, which looked into the disappearance of Sydney mother Lyn Dawson in 1982 and has been downloaded 27 million times worldwide.

Team Captain

"An episode will be launched tomorrow featuring new witnesses and interviews, after a three-month break that allowed time for leads to be explored by police and The Australian, working separately.

Relatives say they are braced for developments.

“We don’t know what’s going to come out,” Mr Simms said.

Two coroners found Lyn’s husband should be prosecuted for her murder. He was not charged after NSW prosecutors cited insufficient evidence. Mr Dawson, now 70 and living in Queensland, denies killing his wife. The NSW Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions has been assessing a new police brief of evidence since April.

“I just hope they’re taking everything into account,” said Mr Simms, a former policeman.

“It’s a matter of them looking at the whole contents of the brief and all the new evidence that has come in. As far as the police are concerned, they’ve got the jigsaw puzzle virtually solved.” "

Premiership Player

There are some similarities to the Keli Lane case, she was convicted in 2010 under Nicholas Cowdery. No body. While Keli's baby as an infant couldn't just walk out and make a new life somewhere else, imo as unlikely as Lyn Dawson could have just walked out. And there's no suggestion up until the infant disappeared, that Keli had any propensity for violence or predatory behaviour. Unlike Chris Dawson, who also had a lot to gain and did, financially. Keli Lane was a liar and that went a long way towards her conviction, but so was Chris Dawson.

"Unlikely" is not beyond reasonable doubt. You can probably count on one hand the number of people convicted of murder in Australia without a body, witness or confession. Most of those convictions (including that of Keli Lane) are problematic or troubling on one or more levels.

In fact I would be more inclined to criticise Cowdrey for putting the Lane case in front of a jury than failing to do so with the Dawson case.